Category Archives: Year 8

Bird by Ear!

Year 8

This morning was a successful birding hike because of my ears. I started my hike at 5:45 am and after about 15 minutes some songbirds led me to my owls in a new location. It was obvious why the Great Horned Owl liked the particular location … dead snags (hunting perches) and openings down to the forest floor (line of sight). I discovered lots of whitewash. Thus it was obvious to me the owls had been using this area for an extended time. I saw four of five owls, and the youngsters were begging for food. Whenever Mom moved, her owlets would not be far behind.

The sun was just kissing the treetops about 6:00 am when I took these Great Horned Owl photographs.

One difficulty with birding by ear is learning bird songs, and their variations. Would you recognize a robin’s alarm clucking. See my earlier post about Cornell’s Merlin Sound ID App. It’s free and easy to use, and will help you learn bird song.

After my time with the owls, I continued my hike to a Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker nest hole. I discovered this nest hole six days ago when I was taking as evening hike. The youngsters should be sticking their heads out of the hole soon when demanding to be fed. When I first found the nest hole, even though I could hear the newly hatched chicks, it took me over 20 minutes to find the hole due to the echos in the forest.

Merlin by Bicycle

Year 8

Even though it reached 90F yesterday, I took a bike ride up the shore to the Talmedge River and back. As always I packed my camera and monopod (see my setup).  While I am not out strictly birding on my daily rides, one never knows what I will see along the shores of Lake Superior. Yesterday it was a juvenile Merlin who was screaming “feed me” to its parents. For those of you in Duluth, the location was 300 yards this side of the Northern Town Homes. There is a nice grove of pine trees and a small stream … good habitat for Merlins. I suspect over the next two weeks I will have more sightings as the youngsters scream for their breakfast or supper at the very tops of the pines.

In addition, here are a few more images from the past few days. Sightings of hawks are increasing as parents have hungry youngsters to feed. In general this is an excellent time for birding. Use your ears as recently fledged youngsters are screaming to be fed.

Broad-Winged Hawk (hunting)

Spotted Sandpiper

Do Owls Sweat?

Year 8
It is 91F in the shade this afternoon here in Duluth on the Fourth of July. The video demonstrates that owls do NOT have sweat glands and need to pant to cool off. You can see the feathers moving on the Great Horned Owl’s neck, and the bird’s mouth is open. (video link for email subscribers)
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The owlet should fly 1/4 mile down to Lake Superior. Down at the lake there is a nice light NE breeze is keeping things cooler (just finished a bike ride before going out birding).

Here are some still images I also took this afternoon.

Finally, this is what I saw when I first found the Great Horned Owlet! There was only one robin clucking in alarm … just one bird. However I was convinced by the robin’s actions there was an owl or hawk in the nearby woods.